OS X has lots of files you can’t see. This is to make it look prettier and also so you don’t break things. Sometimes you may want to see a hidden folder. For example there’s a Library folder which can contain settings for Applications. To show hidden files in OSX from the finder, click in a finder window and press “Shift Command .” (Shift – Command – Period).
It will look something like this when you can see the hidden files. All the slightly opaque files are hidden files.
Before you upgrade to OS X Catalina you may need to stop and assess the applications that will stop working. Catalina is what is called 64 bit. They are not at all compatible. Previous OSX version (e.g. Mojave) would have given you a warning about 32 bit applications that you are running. So I knew that Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and some other apps would stop working when I upgraded to Catalina. But I was not prepared for how many applications would stop working!
Here are just some of the apps that stopped working wth my upgrade to Catalina:
Bento
I used it a lot to edit my Apple Address book contacts. It’s the only program thatI know of that can interface directly with Apple address book and export your contacts into a CSV file. A shame that there is no alternative.
I had the pro version which allowed me to do some nice video editing and compression. The newer versions of quicktime do not have a pro version.
Requires $150 to upgrade to the newer version.
These products now only come as a subscription so I purchased Affinity Designer to replace them.
These still worked on OS X Catalina until I purchased a new laptop. The Serial number validators don’t run in Catalina. That means Dragon and Sibelius will continue to run as long as you keep the same computer. I just upgraded my laptop and both Sebelius and Dragon asked me to re-verify my serial number. There is no way to enter a valid serial number under Catalina. So Catalina killed those two apps even though the apps them selves are 64 bit.
I have a Fujitsu Scansnap S1500 scanner that I used to import all my documents into Devon think pro. The Fujitsu scanner drivers that work in Catalina do not work with older Fujitsu scanners so now my $800 scanner is rendered useless even though it was working perfectly.
The bottom line is when you install Catalina a lot of your existing apps may stop working and you may need to buy new ones or upgrade them. For some applications that just means forking out some money but there are other discontinued applications that there is no alternative for Catalina. (e.g. iDVD, Bento, Quicktime Player 7 Pro, CSSEdit.)
I’d suggest waiting till you have a fair bit of free time before upgrading to Catalina, and after you upgrade give all your Apps a test to make sure they still work.
In OSX Catailna Apple have introduced lots of security ‘Features’ which make it harder to install and run software, especially with software that interacts with other applications. You may get a warning telling you that accessibility needs to be enabled. Here is how you can turn it on for a particular application.
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In my previous posts I have lead you through how to make an AppleScript that can use to open a particular website URL in a particular browser. You can drag these Apple scripts to your dock to instantly access any URL from your dock. Obviously the next step is you will want to give these AppleScripts their own icon so that you can identify them from the dock easily. This is really easy to do in OS X.
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Apple used to have a fantastic application called OSX Server (now called MacOS Server) which allowed you to run a full server from any OSX computer. A server can allow you share files, run your own email or web server, remotely connect in to your office etc. OSX server was particularly powerful running on a Mac Mini. With OSX Mojave 10.14 Apple killed off OSX server, but it is still possible to download an older version from Apple that still works. You need need to purchase OSX server on a newer Mac running Catalina, then go to an older Mac signed in using the same Apple ID and grab the older version of Server from the Purchase history.
Here’s how.
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I have installed OS X Mojave and it is working nicely. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that some of my older and more obscure applications are still working.
Photoshop CS 5.1 is working. I was expecting it to break, but as usual I just had to load the Java run script libraries and it worked.
Illustrator CS 5.1 is still working.
Dragon is working. Nuance claim they have not tested Dragon with OS X Mojave but it is working for me on my late 2012 Mac mini and I can dictate into Microsoft Word and Pages and Mail.
Scansnap Pro is working and imports into Devonthink Pro.
Microsoft Word 2011 still works.
The only app that seems to be crashing is Online Bible.
Mac OS X Mojave was released this week. Don’t forget that if you have more than one Apple computer it will save you time and data if you download the installer once and then copy it across to your various computers. Don’t use the automatic update feature of OS X. Instead download the installer from here: Apple’s Mojave download page
Apple don’t want you to do this, but it’s necessary for some apps.
You may need to go in and allow some apps individually from this same control panel when you are trying to install them.
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